"Now, Mr. King," Searle said, "you are the baas of this party; what do
you think had best be done?"
"I think the first thing," Chris said, "is to post half a dozen men,
three or four hundred yards away, round the house. We must not run the
risk of the tables being turned on us by the Boers crawling up and
surprising us; they may still be hanging about in numbers. Peters, you
take Harris, Bryan, and Capper, and the two Zulus, and post them round
the house. The natives' ears are much sharper than yours are, and if
either of them thinks he hears anything let them crawl out in that
direction and reconnoitre. When I whistle, do you come in to me, leaving
the others on guard, then I will tell you what we have decided upon."
The four named at once went outside, and, calling the natives, left the
yard. Jack had already filled the kettles the colonists had brought with
them, and placed them over the fire.
"While the tea is getting ready," Chris said, "we had better give a good
feed of mealies to all the horses. How many of yours are there left?" he
asked one of the colonists.
"All the twelve we had at first were unwounded this evening, but I can't
say whether any of them have been hit since. The wall was too high for
bullets to touch them as long as the Boers were outside, but most likely
as we were firing through the window we may have hit some of them.
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